Family Guy in general is pretty known for having very strong minoritizing discourse on race, gender, and sexuality. One episode that I felt have one of the strongest cases of minoritizing was episode: Quagmire's Dad. In this episode Quagmire (who is known to be very aggressive with women and having sex with multiple partners) invites his friends Peter and Joe over to meet his dad, who is coming to visit. Before Peter and Joe go to meet Quagmire's dad they are excited because they expect him to be as much of a ladies man as his son is. Peter and Joe soon find out that that is not the case when they realize that Quagmire's dad is gay. Peter and Joe become concerned because Quagmire seems to not notice that his dad is indeed a homosexual so they tell him what they believe and Quagmire is forced to confront his father. Quagmire's father tells his son that he is a women trapped in a man's body and that he wants to have a sex change. So his father has a sex change. The episode concludes with Brian meeting Quagmire's father and sleeps with her not nothing that she used to be a man. Brian finds out after the family tells him and he is disgusted with himself.
Minoritizing discourse on sexuality believe that heterosexuality is the norm and everything in society should be about what works for heterosexuals (Transgeneration Power Point) and this episode clearly shows a minoritizing discourse of sexuality. When Peter and Joe first come over to meet Quagmire's to meet his father they show his father dancing around and wanting to drink a Cosmo, as if it is not manly to dance around to festive music and drink Cosmos. This immediately shows stereotypes of gay men and when Peter and Joe begin to poke fun at Mr. Quagmire for being gay it shows that homosexuality is something to make fun of and is not considered to be the norm. This can also go with Moddelmog's argument that
Minoritizing discourses of transgeneration explain that gender binaries are highlighted and refined and also it give ideas that characters are fixing an internal problem (Transgeneration Power Point). In the episode it gives a clear representation of this when Mr. Quagmire comes out and says that he is not happy being a man and he feels that if he stays a man the rest of his life will be miserable. Another way that this episode shows minoritizing discourse of sexuality is the reaction that the Griffin family has towards Mr. Quagmire after he has the sex change. Mr. Quagmire is invited over to the Griffin house for dinner and immediately the first thing out of Peter's mouth is "Hey so do you miss your penis?", another example of how transgender is seen as some what of a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously.
Lastly another minoritizing discourse of sexuality that appears in the episode is when Brian sleeps with Mr. Quagmire not knowing that she used to be a man. Before Brian finds out that Mr. Quagmire used to be a man he believes that she is his soul mate and he feels that he has finally found the one that he will spend the rest of his life with. Brian tells Peter and Lois about what a wonderful time he had with a women that he has met and then proceeds to show them a picture of her. Peter notices who it is and then begins to laugh hysterically. Brian later has to find out Mr. Quagmire's secret from Stewie and he puts to the pieces together and finds out that that is who he had slept with. He begins to vomit for a ridiculously long time and immediately goes to take a shower to show just how disgusted he was with him self. I believe that this showing minoritizing discourse of sexuality because it makes it seem like that a man that had a sex change can not have any real relationships and can't physically be intimate with a man just because he is transgendered. This can also go with Moddelmog's argument speaking about how same-sex marrigage and relationships are seen viewed as evil in our society. She says that " A more troubling threat is the potential transformation of the way in which marriage functions as a disciplinary mechanism that not only regulates heterosexual desire but helps to produce it" (Moddelmog pp.9). What I think she is meaning by this is that he believes that it will turn into a bad thing for society if it continues to only accept heterosexual and not even to consider same-sex marriage or relationships as acceptable.
Works Cited
Brown, Adrienne. "Transgeneration." May 2011. PowerPoint.
Moddelmog, Debra A. "Can Romantic Comedy Be Gay? : Hollywood Romance, Citizenship, and Same Sex Marriage Panic." (2009): 162-72. Web.
